Monday, December 10, 2007

More comments.. week recap- 85 miles.

I ran 85 miles last week with 3 quality sessions. An interval track workout on Monday, Tempo run on Wednesday and a solid long run on Friday. This structure over the winter I think will be good. Today there is a lot of snow and it is freezing.. I'm too old for high mileage in these conditions.

Jason- I simply estimated your run HR based on what you had provided in bike data. Your LT HR on the bike is very high so I wouldn't want to assume your run HR is even higher. When you start training using any equation to estimate HR ranges you need to use them as a simple starting point and with base training you need to start conservatively, which is what I did. If you were a cyclist then your LT HR could be higher for the bike than the run. If you go to a lab and get an LT test on the run then there is no guess work, they will tell exactly where your HR should be.With the MAF principles the over riding key to it working is patience. The reason that most people need to run so slow in order to keep their HR down is the fact that they are not fit and not efficient. Starting by building your bodies ability to handle more volume and to spare glycogen stores is the key to any endurance sport. With the marathon and Ironman one huge key to your success lies in the training of your muscles to better utilize oxygen through the increase in size and number of mitochondria and an increase in their aerobic enzymes. These muscles can more easily mobilize and use fat for energy, which helps to preserve the carbohydrate stores. The body also develops a greater ability to store and utilize carbohydrates. Some muscle fibers can be adapted for aerobic or anaerobic metabolism exercise. For the marathon, you want to adapt these convertible muscles for aerobic or endurance work. Through training there will be an increase in the number of capillaries for better nutrient supply also.. the most effective way to do this is to run slow enough (at first) to allow this action. As your muscles, connective tissue, heart, and multiple other cellular functions adapt to this running intensity you will start to gain efficiency and strength. You will be able to run a little bit faster yet your heart will not be stressed any more. This process will continue and long as you are disciplined. Anecdotal evidence is common in the success of the Maffetone principles. Mark Allen is maybe the most well known..

Reinhold Asked: Please can you give us a ample how are you train for your Ironman?I think you train very much like the Germans.

I may train like the Germans but I never raced as well as them.. I've been second in an Ironman and 13th and 16th at Kona. My training always had the basic theme of 'more is better'. I have come to accept over the years that I enjoy the journey perhaps more than I do the race. My biggest weeks were always massive- in the 40-49 hour range with, perhaps, an average somewhere near 30 hours. My biggest weeks had one or more of the following- 20-25k in the pool, 600-680 miles on the bike, 100+ miles running. Chuckie has seen me at my worst.. but he's also seen me at my best. It was always hit and miss because I was chronically over trained. If I could change anything it would be hiring a coach. I needed someone to tell me what NOT to do.. simply tell me to back off and rest.A typical week looked like this:Monday- Swim 4k. Lift. Bike 60. Run 9.Tuesday- Swim 4k. Bike 40. Run 13. Wednesday- Swim 4k. Bike 100+ hard group ride.Thursday- Swim 4k. Run 17 hard Hills.Friday- Swim 4k. Lift.Saturday- Bike 120+. Brick to 9 mile hard run at goal IM pace.Sunday- Bike 20-30 easy. Run 2:45-3:00.Nearly all of this was done at my MAF HR's.. The weight sessions were always very hard lifts and most of my runs were quite hard. At my best my MAF HR when I was fresh would be ~5:40 pace. Sometimes Chuck and I would ride long on Mondays too.

QUOTEA couple weeks ago Mike Plumb posted a typical San Diego-based German IM pro schedule. Maybe Norman is included in that group, maybe he does his own thing. But here is the run portion of that schedule below. ~70mpw with a track day, long tempo run, and steady long run. Seems like a better schedule than an untrained hobbyist would put together. Take away the biking and swimming, and you have a schedule not too different than many runner-only 2:3x guys.